Pages

Categories

SOCIAL MEDIA

17 November 2015

Moldy Things in My House Lately

In this post, please note that I'm using the terms "mold" or "moldy" in the colloquial sense--I have not actually done any type of specific analysis of what exact fungus it is that likes to grow on everything, I just clean it up when I see it.

This is intended as a humorous and honest look at what life in a typical tropical home here looks like (note: our home isn't 'sealed' and doesn't use air-con, so the inside climate is very similar to the outside climate). I clean constantly, and fight against the things that like to grow in this perfectly warm and moist climate as best as I can, but sometimes it's a losing battle.

Moving on.

Things that I've found with mold growing on them in my house lately:

- An electric cord belonging to my rice cooker. Hmm, never knew that electric cords were a favorite food for fungi.

- Angel's favorite pair of dress shoes. Real leather is obviously as a delicious food. No wonder most people don't wear leather shoes in this climate.- The wall of our storage room that has been leaking for months. That's normal.- Angel's Northface jacket. As you can imagine, it doesn't get worn often enough here. Clothes that hang in a closet for months are very susceptible to mold, even with the little dehumidifying packets we stuff in there.

- The tomatoes on the counter. That was my fault. I should have used them within three days of being purchased at market instead of playing things risky and waiting 5 days.

- A t-shirt I hadn't worn in a while. Straight from the drawer to the washing machine. I am very cautious about making sure clothes are 100% dry before I put them away (quite a feat considering we air-dry clothes indoors and the humidity never lets up). Good thing we wear and wash pretty much all of our clothes quite regularly here. This place isn't conducive to extensive wardrobes.

- The tiled wall of the bathroom. Even though it was cleaned with bleach less than a week ago.

- Bamboo cutting board. It molded. We cleaned it with bleach. It molded again. We threw it away. Only plastic or glass cutting boards from now on.

- Angel's Bible. haha! He has 3 Bibles at the moment, one of which is a Berkeley Version, which is very old and nearly falling apart to begin with. Usually he reads the NIV, so the Berkeley was kept in a zippered vinyl case. When we got it out because someone needed a spare Bible at Bible study, the cover was moldy.

Stay tuned for the next episode: Places Where I've Found Insect Nests in my Home Lately.

Oh man, our last apartment was like that. Ugh. I used to try to buy a lot of natural stuff (like wooden, not a lot of plastic) but I had to do more plastic and got metal shelves too. Now I try to open the bedroom window almost every day. I haven't been putting the fan on during the day much lately but that's another thing to do to keep air circulating.

Wow, I can't believe it just started growing on his jacket! I will have to check our things more often since we live in a tropical climate as well. You don't use any aircon at all? We use it sometimes as well as a fan especially right after work.

Hilarious! I hate the losing battle of cleaning, but what I have to contend with pales into insignificance compared to pernicious mould! In my home I just have a lot of dust. So much dust. And damp, which is an interesting combo.

Hello, I'm Rachel. I enjoy colorful hair, quirky fashion, and correct grammar in multiple languages. My heart belongs to a man named Angel and the families we share. We love our community in Southeast Asia and live for the God who loved us first.